


In Whose Shadow

by voleuse



Category: House
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-14
Updated: 2010-11-14
Packaged: 2017-10-13 14:34:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/138420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>It was the hunger they admired most of all</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Whose Shadow

**Author's Note:**

> References through S6. Title and summary adapted from Eleanor Wilner's _Magnificat_.

The light in the kitchen was dim, but Chase could hear his mother breathing. Her hand shook, rattling the ice in her glass, and he switched on the light in the living room, to spare her eyes the shock of direct light.

"Where've you been?" she asked. She pushed an empty cigarette pack in circles, idly, the wrapper crinkling against the tablecloth.

"The library," he said. "The store." He stepped quietly into the kitchen, shelving milk and bread and beans with efficiency. "I have a biology exam in the morning."

His mother crushed the cigarette pack, then took another sip from her glass.

"Good night," he said. He hesitated, but she remained silent. He retreated to study.

*

He left the seminary the day after a long, tortuous discussion on theodicy. A professor asked him, with the smile of someone who thought he was being kind, why God allowed good people to suffer.

Chase didn't have an answer. That evening, his father called.

He started medical school a month later.

*

Doctor Gregory House wasn't like anything Chase expected. Aside from the brilliance, of course. House flipped through Chase's file as if it was _The Sun-Herald_ , then looked up at Chase and snorted.

"You aren't smart enough to deserve these recommendation letters," House told him. "Did you sleep with all of your professors?"

Chase blinked, then cleared his throat. "Not all of them," he hedged.

"Kill any patients?"

"No," Chase said.

"Probably sheer luck on your part," House replied. He tapped his finger against his desk. "You're young and pretty, and moderately intelligent when compared with the sheer idiocy of those around you. Everything in your life has come easy to you."

Chase straightened in his seat, something like indignance flaring in his chest. "Only recently," he replied.

At that, House's mouth twitched, and he stared at Chase for a minute. Finally, he nodded. "I don't trust the morons in our surgical unit to cut when and where I say to cut." He opened Chase's file again. "Why do you want to work here?"

"Because your surgical unit is filled with morons," Chase responded.

House snorted. "Good enough. You're hired."

*

Chase smiled at the girls, or rather, _women_ and pretended not to notice when one of them blushed, and the other giggled.

When he returned to the lounge, Cameron quirked an eyebrow at him.

"What?"

"Flirting with the interns?" Her ponytail swung as she turned back to her computer. "Kind of tacky, don't you think?"

"I wasn't flirting." He sat down and picked up a random publication from the table. "House asked me to walk them through their rounds."

Cameron looked over her shoulder again. "Was that a euphemism?"

"If it is," Chase replied, "I did it wrong." He looked up from his magazine. "Are you jealous?"

Cameron laughed. "Please."

He raised his eyebrow, and she rolled her eyes and went back to her e-mail.

*

Three weeks after they divorced, Chase startled when the door to the apartment swung open. He cursed as he knocked his beer over on the coffee table, and Cameron swung a suitcase through the threshold.

"Sorry," she said, observing Chase as he mopped up the mess. "I didn't think you'd be here."

"Obviously," he said. "I had a late surgery, so Cuddy sent me home." He folded his arms awkwardly, the sofa standing between them.

Cameron gestured at the suitcase. "I was going to get my clothes. If that's okay." She smiled. "If you haven't burned them."

"No, they're in," he frowned, "they're still in the closet. Where you left them."

"Oh." Cameron folded her arms, mirroring him. "I thought they'd be in box or something. Great."

"Yeah," Chase said. He considered making up an excuse, but there wasn't one. He didn't need one. "You need any help?"

Something like sympathy was playing in Cameron's expression. "Robert--"

"It's fine," he said. "Okay. I was watching a football match." He settled back on the sofa, his back to her. "Help yourself." He stared at the screen.

There was silence, so he turned up the volume and waited for her to walk away.


End file.
